Multiplayer Mahjong

Mahjong, or Chinese Dominoes, is a popular casual game and has many online versions. We have, however, to distinguish between two very different kinds of online Mahjong: the four-player version, somewhat of the chinese equivalent of poker, and the tile-matching single player game. The tile-matching game, where you have to click on two identical free pieces in order to remove them and pair by pair clear a multi-layered domino structure, is the game as it is known to most casual players in the west. From now on I will refer only to this type of game when using the word "Mahjong" (and click here to play Enkord's very well presented but typical sample).

As far as I know, there was no serious attempt up to now to transform Mahjong into a multiplayer game. The only multiplayer versions i'm aware of are only parallel-play, where players play side-by-side but without direct competition or dialogue (check out Wellgames' version for an example).

Here are some ideas about how a true multiplayer Mahjong might work:

1. The most straightforward way is to have both players play on the same set, competing to remove as many matched pairs as possible. Players get points for each pair they remove, and the highest scoring player when all tiles are removed wins the match. To make matters more interesting, specific tiles may have special properties that activate when cleared from the board: they may just be worth more points than usual, or, more aggresively, may reverse the rival player's controls for a short time.
   
   The battle can also be given an atmospheric context instead of just being a race for points: for example, one player may be labled as the "Day Master", while the second one is the "Night Master". The game's initial background is sky at dusk, and the better each player performs, the more that background is pushed gradually towards a brilliant sunny day or a dark starry night. The game is over either when the board is cleared, or sooner if one of the sides manages to push the ambience completely into full night or day zone.
   
   This concept may work well both in real-time or in short turns. The turn-based version will give each player about 10 seconds at a time to remove as many tiles as possible before switching to the other player. Here, special tiles may award the player with more time to use on the current turn.
   


2. A slightly more complex implementation I'll name "Fortress Fight Mahjong". In this game each player has his own set of tiles to clear, but can see both his and the rival's set, as well as a path that connects the two sets. These sets will have the general apperance of fortresses, castles, towers and miscellaneous military structures. The domino pieces themselves bear symbols of military units and weapons. Each player can only remove pieces from his set. When a pair is removed, the unit or the weapon inscribed on it is activated. A unit materializes on the path and moves towards the enemy's set/fortress, while a weapon immediately affects either the friendly fortress (if it is a defensive weapon) or the enemy's. Units may meet on the path and fight to the death using a simple random algorithm and based on a few parameters that define each unit. A unit that reaches the rival set and overcomes any defensive weapons it might be equipped with causes damage according to that unit's attack rank. As damage accumulates, the set slowly crumbles (visually, the domino pieces in the set develop ash marks and shock cracks). The first to destroy the enemy's set is victorious. If a player clears his set, he gets a brand new fortress/set in reward.
   
   It's easy to build a long-term ranked competition around this game, as you can allow players to build their own "deck" (collection of tiles that is used to randomly draw pieces for the creation of that player's fortresses), and award winning players with new types of units and weapons. The concept does, however, begin to stray from the definition of casual, so you may want to keep it as simple as possible, at least for the majority of players.